How big of a risk is picking up 3/4 Methods without 1/2?

[nosuperstar]

After much research and consideration, majority of the courses I am considering for 2014 require methods or specialist as a prerequisite, I dropped methods earlier this year for general maths but am considering going back for 3/4 with the hope of getting at least 25 to satisfy the uni requirements, with the hope of my ATAR not getting affected due to the Primary 4. So as the title says, how big of a risk is picking up methods this late into the 2 year course, in terms of success and failure?

Thanks in advance!

[golden]

After much research and consideration, majority of the courses I am considering for 2014 require methods or specialist as a prerequisite, I dropped methods earlier this year for general maths but am considering going back for 3/4 with the hope of getting at least 25 to satisfy the uni requirements, with the hope of my ATAR not getting affected due to the Primary 4. So as the title says, how big of a risk is picking up methods this late into the 2 year course, in terms of success and failure?

Thanks in advance!

If you are completely doing it only based on year 10 maths, general maths etc. then it would be pretty hard. Unless you're prepared to go through year 11 Methods skipping the irrelevant content on the holidays.

[arush002]

The thing is a lot lf what you do the 3/4 you have already learnt the basics in the 1/2

[pi]

The thing is a lot lf what you do the 3/4 you have already learnt the basics in the 1/2

This, most of the courses are the same, with only prob being different

[nosuperstar]

I did part of unit one, and because I still have the textbook and was considering picking up methods for next year since earlier this year and because of that, I have been self teaching myself the course, if that makes a difference? I do understand majority of unit 1/2 but by 'without 1/2, I mean class wise and SAC/Exam wise because i'm not aware of the mindset needed for testing with methods.

[pi]

If you're self-teaching yourself and you are finding textbook questions comfortable, you should be ok. It'll all be revised in units 3/4(except for some of the prob)

[charmanderp]

I legit failed Unit 1+2 Methods; didn't do any of the exercises and had an average around 30%. This year averaging 80% in 3/4 and getting pretty good marks on practice exams. I personally don't reckon there was much pre-requisite stuff (not that I'd have noticed) and you'd easily get a 25 if you had reasonably strong mathematic skills coming out of year 10 (which I did, personally). Also, you could easily cover the course content over the summer holidays with a tutor.

[TommyLie]

I would recommend you do methods 3/4 next year if you are willing to go over the essential unit 1/2 knowledge these holidays, it sounds like you will probably need it for uni so it will be worth you time. Since there is very little 'new' stuff in 3/4 as opposed to 1/2, apart from a few new rules and harder questions (not greatly harder though), then you could easily get a 25 raw IF from day 1 next year to the end of the year you keep up to date and make good notes after each topic.

It's very important, IMO, to make detailed notes after each topic, it means you don't have to make them at the end of the year when you should be doing practice exams and means if you forget a topic you don't have to 'relearn' it as such, but just skim over your notes and it will immediately come back to you because you have written them. By the way, by 'detailed notes' I don't mean taking neat notes from your teachers white board in each class, I mean after each topic, go through your text book and other resources such as A+ notes and summarize the topic in a way you understand it. You may not like this strategy and that's fine as everyone learns differently, but for me this has got me from a D~C average in year 10 advanced general maths to a B+ ~ A in year 11 Methods, to an A+ in specialist maths in year 12

If you feel you're a confident maths student ~ B average ~ and you are willing to put in the work and time that has been suggested from people here, then I'm confident you will do very well

If you decide to do methods next year, then I would highly recommend you be able to understand and do the following things before you start units 3/4:

1: Basic algebra skills; rearranging equations and inequalities, solving them and sketching equations. This includes linear (), quadratic () and cubic functions () (And maybe quartic though I've never been asked about them in year 12). And be a professional at solving simultaneous equations as they show up in EVERY area of study next year, they are not that hard to learn, but they are essential. This stuff is not really taught in year 12, there is about 2 exercises on it in the first chapter, but most of it is assumed, so this is by far the most important knowledge.

2: Know basic algebra around Logs and Exponents; Learn log and Exponent laws, learn how to solve them and sketch them. This is a pretty straight forward topic and is taught again in year 12 in detail. Just know your exponent and Log Laws and how to apply them to basic log and exponent equations and how to sketch graphs. eg .

3: Circular functions; Learn the exact values (Important), Learn how to solve and sketch the basic Sine and Cosine graphs, don't worry about translated ones. Eg , , etc. Don't bother with etc. This whole topic is covered again in detail in 3/4, so just make sure you can do that basic stuff and understand it.

4: Have a good look at the calculus section; understand how to differentiate and anti-differentiate Linear, Quadratic and cubic functions. If you feel confident with that, have a look at the applications of differentiation and anti-differentiation as there is a large amount of this in 3/4.

5: Finally have a brief look at probability BASICS, ignore combinations ect. Prob in 3/4 is very different to 1/2 and IMO a lot easier in 3/4. You could probably get away with ignoring 1/2 probability.

Hope this helps, it's hard to say exactly how hard it will be for you, or how much time you will have to spend doing this stuff because it is different for everyone. So instead I'm showing you what you would have to know to get a decent score in methods (IMO). And given that next year you won't be doing 'the Asian 5', you will probably have more free time to study this

[charmanderp]

1: Basic algebra skills; rearranging equations and inequalities, solving them and sketching equations. This includes linear (), quadratic () and cubic functions () (And maybe quartic though I've never been asked about them in year 12). And be a professional at solving simultaneous equations as they show up in EVERY area of study next year, they are not that hard to learn, but they are essential. This stuff is not really taught in year 12, there is about 2 exercises on it in the first chapter, but most of it is assumed, so this is by far the most important knowledge.

This is crucially important. Your algebra and mathematic intuition has to be quite good to do well in Methods. The other 4 points mentioned in the previous post are important but not crucial; you'll learn all of that stuff again (depending on your school, though, you might not). Algebra however is something you're already expected to be highly competent at.

[TommyLie]

Most definitely, you basic algebra skills are the most important of the 5 I listed. You could easily set aside a few days in the holidays and study through these parts in your methods 1+2 text book. If you have a very strong understanding of the algebraic techniques that go with linear up to quartic functions, then I guarantee you everything else will be significantly easier. Completing the square, Null factor law, all the different ways of factorizing and expanding expressions, solving for x and y intercepts, solving a system of linear equations. At minimum become a pro at these (point 1), and skim over the other points so you have intuition about them when you start them in 3/4.

I can assure you as well, that it won't take 3 weeks to learn this stuff. Siting down with your textbook and going through these concepts, making notes and doing the exercises, will take you maybe ~5 days to one week if you are dedicated

Also, as for difficulty, while the first point is the most important, it is also probably the easiest of them all. There's no real tricky parts to them or special cases which are difficult to get your head around, its just a matter of learning it and doing it really. If you find yourself getting stuck, then I HIGHLY recommend you watch some videos from Khan academy. His algebra playlist covers all methods 1+2 algebra up to uni level (http://www.youtube.com/user/khanacademy/videos?sort=dd&flow=grid&view=1&page=2). Khan academy has probably taught me more in the last 2 years than school has

[nosuperstar]

@TommyLie - Wow, thanks for the detailed reply! I went through my methods textbook and allocated the chapters to the 5 areas of study which you outlined and I plan to study them more closely during this coming week and in more detail during the summer holidays. I've already gone through linear, quadratic and cubic functions, also logs and exponents, so I've got myself on a bit of a good start there. 
I'm generally pretty good with algebra, but I feel as though I could improve, though as you said, i'll put time into getting additional resources and making detailed notes, the reliance on my CAS in general maths has really made me stupid these past few months.
I'm averaging A/A+ in it, though i'm not sure whether to do it with methods or just drop further all together.